A Rocky Road
by MarnieWest
Summary: The FBI has begun a new CI exchange program and the agent that Neal getts put with turns out not to be a very good handler. (This was actually for a sience assignment)


A/N - I did this as a rock cycle writing thing for my science class so WARNING some of the characters might be a bit out of whack. Thanks!

On Monday morning Neal swaggered into the bullpen out of the hot elevator, his brilliant smile and cool personality firmly in place. He immediately header for Peter's office. He went up the stairs two at a time and barged in in his normal intrusive manner catching the end of the conversation between Peter and another agent that Neal had never seen before.

"Here he is right now," Peter said and then looked at Neal. "Neal, this is agent Paul Santos. The FBI has started a new CI exchange program so you will be working with him for a little while."

Suddenly Neal felt his bright and happy mood begin to break down and sediments of fear and anxiety began creeping in at the memory of the last time that he had been loaned to another agent. The emotions began mixing all together until he felt a familiar hand on his shoulder, giving him strength and cementing him back together. But the unwanted sediments were still trapped inside.

"Nothing bad should happen Neal," Peter reassured him. "It should all be a smooth operation. It will only be a week and then you'll be coming straight back to me."

"A week!" Neal cried, staring at Peter.

"Yes, Neal. A week," Peter repeated. "Now, Agent Santos works on one of the lower floors of the White Collar division so most likely I will not be seeing you at all during this time."

At this point Neal was still just staring at Peter. Then there came a timid sounding knock on his office door and a young man, about Neals age and height came through the open doorway. He had light blond hair and deep blue eyes with a small smile on his face.

"Ah," Agent Santos said, standing up from where he had been sitting through Peter's entire explanation. "Agent Burke, this is my CI, Logan Martins. Logan, I know I explained everything to you over the phone this morning but I would like to speak to you in private for a moment. Agent Burke, may I?" he asked, gesturing toward the door that connected the office to the conference room. Peter nodded his confirmation.

As Agent Santos lead his CI into the conference room Peter turned back to Neal and said, "Everything is going to be fine." He squeezed Neal's shoulder reassuringly.

"Well agent Burke," Santos announced as he came back into the room with Logan. "I guess that Neal and I better get down to my floor. Be good Logan."

"Bye Neal," Peter called, giving him one last pat on the back before Neal followed Agent Santos down the stairs, still feeling a little shellshocked.

Agent Santos lead Neal into the elevator and then hit the button for the 17th floor.

Once they reached the right floor, they stepped out of the elevator and suddenly, Neal felt as if he had just been thrown into a fiery inferno which began to slowly melt him down. As they headed up the matching stairs to those on the 21st floor he told himself the calm down as he attempted to slow his breathing. He was slowly beginning to cool off as he followed Santos into his office, which was identical to Peter's except for the small personal items and a smaller desk in the corner of the room that sat facing the wall. Neal, who was now completely cooled off and his rough exterior had been turned into a fine, smooth surface, was directed to sit at this desk by Santos.

Neal slowly approached the desk. It appeared to be about the same size as Neal's own desk but it didn't have any personal items on it and didn't even appear to have that much work related items on it either, just a couple files and a couple pencils and pens.

Neal sat down and stared at the desk in front of him for a few moments befor turning around in his seat and saying, "Um, Agent Santos. What am I supposed to be doing exactly?"

Agent Santos slowly raised his eyes from where he had begun reading a file and raised an eyebrow at Neal. " I think that we might need to go over some ground rules Caffrey," he stated, rising to his feet with his palms planted on his desk. He began to walk around his desk towards Neal as he continued, "You will only speak if spoken to or if you ask and I give permission to do so. You always address me as 'sir' You are required to ask permission to leave a room at any time. Do make myself clear?"

By this point he had reached Neal and was leaning over him with one hand on the edge of Neal's new desk and the other on the back of the wooden chair Neal was sitting in. He was trapped.

Neal could feel the heat of Santos' breathe on his face and the intense pressure from eyes and close proximity. Both of these factors made Neal cower in on his self and give a quick nod of agreement to Santos.

"Good," Santos said "Now, what was your question, Neal?"

"Ah," Neal stuttered. "What do you want me to do?" Santos raised another eyebrow and Neal quickly added, "Sir."

"Why don't you start with these cold cases and then, once you're done with them you can come and ask me for more."

"Thank you, Sir," Neal responded quietly before turning back to the desk in front of him. He took the file from the top of the very small stack in the corner and opened it up.

* * *

><p>The next four days went with Neal following Santos' rules to the letter as he worked on stack after stack of cold cases in the corner of Santos' office. He had gone home only twice and in those two times he had barely had time to get in an hour of sleep, a shower, and a change of clothes.<p>

The constant work and strict rules were really starting to wear him down. Every hour it seemed that a sediment of strength was replaced by one of tiredness.

Finally, Santos came up to his desk at 9:30 on Thursday night and said, "You know, Neal. You've done a very good job the last few days so I thought that you could go home early tonight. On you go."

Neal smiled for the first time that week since Monday and started gathering the few things that he had with him and said a quick, "Thank you, Sir," before disappearing out of the office and getting out of the building as quickly as possible.

As soon as Neal got home he stripped off his jacket and dress shirt and changed into some pajama pants before collapsing onto his bed and feeling his entire being cementing all back together, completely forgetting to set an alarm for the next morning.

* * *

><p>The next morning Neal woke up to sunlight streaming through the windows of the loft room. He looked over at his alarm clock with bleary eyes and suddenly, he was wide awake.<p>

It was 10:00

"Shoot!," Neal cried before stumbling out of bad and getting straight into the shower. He didn't have enough time to eat breakfast so he just ran out the door after his shower and flagged a cab.

As soon as he got to the bureau he got into an elevator to the 17th floor. When he arrived on the correct floor he basically ran out the doors and straight up the glass staircase and right into Santos' office without knocking.

When he entered the office Santos looked up from where he had been working at his deck and raised both eyebrows at Neal.

He slowly pushed himself out of his seat and began to speak quietly. "Do you really think that after being three and a half hours late you can just barge into my office and expect me to forgive and forget. You were doing so well this week to and I thought that I would be able to give you a night off and then we could finish off the week with a good last day, but it appears that that is not going to happen."

Suddenly Santos was right up in Neal's face and Neals back was up against the wall and was being held there by Santos. "Your lucky that today is Friday and I can't give you a proper beating like I should," Santos hissed.

The heat and pressure coming from Santos' intimidating figure were once again making Neal cower down in fear of this man.

Suddenly he let Neal go and brought back his hand and let his open palm fall and hit Neal hard across his left cheek and then Santos turned and walked back to his desk. He sat down and said, "Get back to work, Neal."

Neal slowly pushed himself back away from the wall. His entire body was shaking badly and he was so scared. He turned and ran out the door of the office and right back down the stairs and to the elevator, ignoring the yells from Santos to, "get back here!"

Once kin the elevator Neal frantically started hitting the button titled 21 as if the elevator would move faster if he pushed it hard and fast enough.

When the elevator finally arrived on the 21st floor Neal ran out of the elevator, surprising everyone as he sprinted through the bullpen and up the stairs. He burst into Peter's office where he had been doing cold cases of his own because he had also had a quiet week. Neal threw himself at Peter and clutched on to him for dear life.

Peter was shocked to look up and see his CI, who was supposed to be on exchange for the rest of the day, barging into his office with a wild and frightened look in his eyes. He had to act quickly to catch a flying Neal and immediately he could feel the shakes going through Neals entire body. Peter ran his hands gently up and down Neal's back and softly asked, "Neal, what happened?"

The only response was a quiet sob from Neal. Peter pulled away just enough so that he could lift Neals chin up. The first thing he saw was the hand shaped red splotch on his left cheek and the next thing was the tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Neal, who hit you?," he asked softly.

Neal sniffed before answering, "Santos. I slept in and came in late and he got really mad." His sobs redoubled at that point making it impossible for him to speak.

Peter pulled him back into his arms and comforted him with gentle words and soothing hands.

Neal felt the fear and pain melt away and then, as he began to calm down, he cooled slowly as he fell asleep, still standing in Peter's arms.


End file.
